A blurry photo of Silva as an inmate shows a youthful-looking man with a dark brown beard. It appears on a list of escapees at the DOC's website, where only seven fugitives have been missing for longer periods.

Enrique Silva, accused of fleeing a Camden prison in 1995, is being held in a Florida jail.(Photo: Photo provided)

Five of those inmates went missing in the 1970s, including Joanne Chesimard, the convicted killer of a New Jersey State Police trooper. She is believed to be in Cuba.

Investigators from DOC’s Fugitive Unit have “aggressively pursued” Silva, "conducting numerous interviews and exhausting various leads,” the agency said Monday in announcing his arrest.

“It was only a matter of time when Enrique Silva’s fun in the sun would come to an end,” it said.

A man who fled Riverfront State Prison in North Camden in 1995 has been captured in Florida, authorities say.(Photo: Courier-Post file photo)

According to the DOC, the search for Silva heated up in February when investigators learned the Orlando address of "a potential female acquaintance."

The DOC investigators, now part of a regional task force of the U.S. Marshals Service, alerted their counterparts in Florida, who began surveillance of the home.

"Officers observed a gray-bearded man fitting Silva's description walking in and out of the residence," the statement said.

Task force members from New Jersey went to Florida, where the fugitive hunters entered the Orlando house at 10 a.m. on March 8.

The grey-bearded man ran out the back door, the account said.

"This time, Enrique Silva ran into the awaiting arms of law enforcement," it noted.

By noon, Silva was in a Florida jail, where he's awaiting extradition to New Jersey.

But the long-time fugitive won't be returning to Riverfront State Prison. His former lock-up closed in 2009 and was demolished to make way for a redevelopment project in North Camden.